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Rainforest Pharmacy: Jungle Medicine and Nutrition

Learn how animals in the Amazon rainforest utilize natural resources for medicinal purposes in this video from the NATURE mini-series Spy in the Wild. Part of the episode “Intelligence,” this video shows how animals have discovered ways to supplement their diets, prevent disease, and counter the effects of harmful toxins by consuming certain trees and even mud! Teaching tips ask students to explore their own dietary needs and to consider how food provides vitamins and minerals needed to maintain their health. Another tip suggests that students research medicines with ingredients found in the rainforest.

After watching the video, ask students to think about their own need for vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy body. Just like the animals in the video, humans need to ensure they consume certain naturally occurring vitamins and minerals. Students may be aware that there is a slight controversy over the optimal amounts of vitamins and minerals to consume. Students can brainstorm why there is a conception that more is better for vitamins and minerals and why it might be difficult to establish the optimal amount of vitamins and minerals.

Students can explore their diets in depth by analyzing food labels. All packaged foods are required to display a standardized nutrition label. The label contains information about the serving size, amount of calories, fat, protein, and other required nutrients. Ask students to complete the Food Label Analysis Handout to help connect the information provided in the video to their own dietary needs.

The video reveals that a quarter of our medicine was discovered in the Amazon rainforest. Ask students to dig deeper into this area of pharmacology by researching the source of a commonly used medicine. Ask students to look for the source, use, and backstory for the medicine they select. How did humans come to use this natural resource for medicinal purposes? How is it collected? How is it used? Is it possible to create a synthetic version? Students can conduct their research, write a 2-3 page paper, and then present to the class.

Observing Animals in the Wild

This video and all the other excerpts from the Spy in the Wild series can be used to address how scientists observe animals in nature and collect data about them. Have students discuss why the filmmakers used spy cameras. Encourage students to think about how animals behave around people vs. when they’re by themselves. Students who are less familiar with animals can think about how they act differently when filmed. The Scientific Method: Sloth Sleep Study can be used to further explore how scientists observe animals and how the animals’ environment can affect their actions.

Students can also discuss the difference in perspective from the spy camera and the regular camera. How does the different view change their thinking about the animal? Do they interpret the animal’s actions differently? Emphasize why it is important to "enter" the animal’s universe.

By using the other spy resources (see recommended resources), students can compare the different spy cameras. Ask students to identify the criterion and constraints for the design of all the spy cameras. How are they alike and how are they different? What are some features that are specific to individual cameras like the wolf cub, otter etc.? Comparing the spy creatures to the spy inanimate objects, like spy rock, is a great way for students to explore how similar design projects can still have different criterion and constraints. This Observing Elephants Criteria and Constraints video about the four types of cameras used to observe the elephants further supports this concept.

Vocabulary

Aerate — introduce air into something (For example, beetles aerate the fur of the sloth in the video.)

Medicinal — a substance or plant with healing properties.

Mineral — a solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence; animals depend on some minerals for nutritional reasons (For example, sodium, calcium and iron are all minerals that animals need to survive.)

Vitamin — any of a group of organic compounds that are essential for normal growth and nutrition and are required in small quantities in the diet because they cannot be synthesized by the body (For example, vitamins A, C, and D are all necessary for animal survival.)